SEC Charges Tampa Executive SEC With Giving Bribes to Qatari Officials
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced on January 22, 2015, that it charged a former executive at a Tampa based engineering and construction firm with bribing foreign officials to secure contracts with the government of Qatar. Such bribes violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is a federal law which mandates accounting transparency and prohibits companies from paying bribes to foreign government officials and political figures for the purpose of obtaining business. It is the first American law that gives full protection to foreign nationals for reporting bribes and contains extraordinary procedures for their protection.
An SEC investigation found that Walid Hatoum, who has agreed to settle the SEC’s charges, offered to funnel funds to a local company owned and controlled by a foreign official in order to secure two multi-million Qatari government contracts for PBSJ in 2009. The foreign official subsequently provided Hatoum and PBSJ’s international subsidiary with access to confidential sealed-bid and pricing information that enabled the PBSJ subsidiary to tender winning bids for a hotel resort development project in Morocco and a light rail transit project in Qatar.
The SEC’s order against Hatoum finds that he violated the anti-bribery, internal accounting controls, books and records, and false records provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Without admitting or denying the findings, Hatoum agreed to pay a penalty of $50,000.
Related links:
- Information on filing a whistleblower rewards claim under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
- FCPA Resources
If you have knowledge of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations and would like to know how Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto can help you file a claim, please contact us .
